NEW YORK — As Americans fend off a late summer season COVID-19 spike and put together for a contemporary vaccine rollout, Republicans are elevating acquainted fears that government-issued lockdowns and masks mandates are subsequent.

It’s been a favourite matter amongst a number of the GOP‘s prime presidential contenders. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis instructed reporters that individuals are “lurching toward” COVID-19 restrictions and “there needs to be pushback.” South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott posted on-line that the “radical Left” seeks to carry again faculty closures and mandates. And former President Donald Trump urged congressional Republicans to cease the Biden administration from bringing again COVID-19 “mandates, lockdowns or restrictions of any kind.”

“The radical Democrats are trying hard to restart COVID hysteria,” Trump instructed supporters in Rapid City, South Dakota, throughout a latest marketing campaign cease. “I wonder why. Is there an election coming up by any chance?”

While some particular person colleges and schools have carried out momentary masks necessities, there isn't a signal that anybody in federal or state management is contemplating widespread COVID-19 restrictions, necessities or masks mandates. The administrations of a number of Democratic governors denied that any such strikes are even beneath dialogue. The overriding sentiment is to go away the choices to people.

“No COVID-19 public health restrictions or mask requirements are being considered by the Murphy administration,” mentioned Christi Peace, spokesperson for New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.

“There are no impending mass lockdowns or mask mandates for New Mexico,” mentioned Jodi McGinnis Porter, spokeswoman for the New Mexico Department of Public Health.

It was largely the identical message from Democratic governors’ places of work in a number of different states that responded to an inquiry about whether or not any COVID-19 mandates have been into consideration. That included Connecticut, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan and Oregon.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, made clear his opposition to COVID-19 lockdowns in addition to masks and vaccine mandates when he was campaigning for workplace final yr: “This is an area where I think folks got it wrong,” he mentioned of college and enterprise shutdowns. His workplace echoed the identical sentiment in its response to the AP this week, saying, “The administration’s view is that there is no need to impose restrictions.”

In the 2 most populous Democratic-led states, California and New York, the state well being departments suggest getting the up to date vaccine, however haven't any necessities for the shot or masks sporting. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was requested throughout a information convention Wednesday about whether or not she would take into account masks or vaccine mandates: “We are in a place where we’re seeing low numbers; not requiring such actions today,” she mentioned.

Elisabeth Shephard, spokesperson for Oregon’s Democratic governor, Tina Kotek, famous that the federal public well being emergency for the virus outbreak led to May.

“Currently, COVID-19 lockdowns and mask mandates are not being discussed and the governor has no plans to institute these measures,” she mentioned.

Still, the deceptive narrative has confirmed a handy scare tactic for Republicans of their efforts to woo voters who see Democrats as oppressive leaders focusing on their freedoms.

The GOP presidential hopefuls hammering this message within the final week be a part of a refrain of conservative lawmakers and far-right pundits who've spent the final month warning that tyrannical COVID-19 measures are looming.

In August, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claimed an nameless “high-level manager in the TSA” and an unnamed “Border Patrol-connected” supply instructed him that Transportation Security Administration staff would quickly have to put on masks and that COVID-19 lockdowns would return in December.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mentioned the claims have been “utterly false,” however they nonetheless have been amplified by influential Republicans, together with Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who posted on X that she wrote to the TSA demanding solutions.

Later final month, when a Black liberal arts school in Atlanta introduced it had reinstated a short lived masks mandate in response to pupil infections, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, posted on X that “Americans have had enough COVID hysteria. WE WILL NOT COMPLY!”

The faculty, Morris Brown College, has since lifted the requirement however is holding in place different insurance policies, together with contact tracing and temperature checks on campus.

Some of the outcry from conservatives has been in response to President Joe Biden’s feedback final month on COVID-19’s latest uptick, which has led to a rise in hospitalizations and deaths nationwide - although a fraction of what the nation noticed in previous surges.

“As a matter of fact, I signed off this morning on a proposal we have to present to the Congress a request for additional funding for a new vaccine that is necessary - that works,” Biden instructed reporters throughout a go to to South Lake Tahoe. “And tentatively - not decided finally yet - tentatively, it is recommended that, it will likely be recommended that everybody get it no matter whether they’ve gotten it before or not.”

The CDC on Tuesday endorsed these new pictures for everybody 6 months and older, and the vaccines will likely be out there at pharmacies, well being facilities and a few physician places of work as quickly as this week.

Still, the Biden administration doesn't plan to implement any new vaccine or masks mandates, in response to a White House official who requested anonymity to debate the administration’s considering.

Reinstated masks necessities throughout the nation have up to now been restricted to a handful of native colleges and companies. One instance is a Maryland elementary faculty that required college students who have been uncovered in a classroom’s outbreak to put on masks at college for 10 days.

But these remoted measures have sparked outrage from conservatives who've used them to energise their supporters.

Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio final week unveiled the “Freedom to Breathe Act,” a invoice that may block the federal authorities from imposing masks mandates for home flights, public transit and colleges. His name for unanimous passage of the invoice failed, with Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts calling it a “red herring” meant to deflect from the GOP’s prioritization of “gimmicks over people.”

Greene, the Republican from Georgia, launched a companion invoice within the House. She has mentioned she received’t vote to keep away from a authorities shutdown until the federal government ends coronavirus mandates, which have already largely been reversed.

Misinformation consultants say there’s a method to Republicans’ foreboding claims about impending mandates: They remind voters of the detrimental emotions that they had early within the pandemic - and affiliate these with Democrats.

“Wearing a mask doesn’t have to be connected to anxiety, fear, anger and other strong emotions, but for many people it is,” mentioned Lisa Fazio, a Vanderbilt University psychology professor who research the unfold of false claims. “No one wants to go back to those feelings, so Republicans are trying to tie those negative feelings and memories to their political opponents.”

Meanwhile, a number of the Republican-led states the place state leaders are railing in opposition to COVID-19 measures have been the toughest hit by the latest surge. Data exhibits Mississippi had the best COVID-19 dying price per 10,000 folks within the final week of August.

Early that week, the state’s Republican governor, Tate Reeves, pledged to dam any widespread restrictions, posting on-line that the state would “live in self-determination, not top-down fear.”

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Associated Press knowledge journalist Nicky Forster and writers Joey Cappelletti, Mike Catalini, Jill Colvin, John Hanna, Susan Haigh, Maysoon Khan, Seung Min Kim, Steve LeBlanc, Morgan Lee, Marc Levy, Lisa Mascaro and Andrew Selsky contributed to this report.

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